Bharti Airtel of India and Swedish telecom equipment vendor Ericsson announced on Wednesday that they have achieved peak speeds of 4.7Gbps using Airtel’s 5G mmWave network for fixed wireless access (FWA) in a recent demonstration. The 5G high-band or millimeter-wave spectrum is particularly suitable for providing coverage in densely populated urban areas with numerous mobile devices, homes, and business areas. Ericsson emphasized that the high-band, above 24 GHz, presents an opportunity for Airtel to offer unprecedented peak rates, low latency, and high capacity.
Randeep Singh Sekhon, CTO of Bharti Airtel, expressed confidence in deploying mmWave for FWA application, stating that the peak throughput observed during testing is promising. He noted that using FWA customer premises equipment (CPE) supported with 5G mmWave would not only deliver greater speeds but also help connect a large number of users previously inaccessible due to the lack of fiber connections.
Nunzio Mirtillo, Head of Ericsson Southeast Asia, Oceania, and India, highlighted the significance of the demonstrations on the 26GHz band, emphasizing its role in showcasing the scalability and integration of mmWave into a commercial mobile network. Ericsson’s mmWave portfolio for macro and street macro levels offers Airtel the opportunity to seamlessly provide high-capacity connectivity to urban dwellers using FWA solutions.
Airtel had previously launched Xstream AirFiber, a wireless home Wi-Fi service, for 5G customers in Delhi and Mumbai in August of the previous year. All Xstream AirFiber devices are set to be manufactured locally under the ‘Make in India’ program. Additionally, rival Reliance Jio also offers a 5G FWA service, JioAirFiber, to its customers.
According to Ericsson, FWA connections worldwide are projected to increase from 130 million at the end of 2023 to 330 million by the end of 2029, representing 18% of all fixed broadband connections. Close to 85% of the projected connections are expected to be over 5G. As of November 2023, 50 out of 121 service providers with 5G FWA offerings are in emerging markets, according to Ericsson’s data.
